Nick Knowles, Mark Miller, Julian Perryman and Billy Byrne all came to the beach to film a sandcastle scene for DIY SoS, what better beach to come to than Westward Ho!?
We had a phone call..."I understand you ran the Sandcastle Competition and we need a sandcastle, can you help?". This is Westward Ho!, of course we can help! Turned out it was the DIY SoS production team that wanted to go to the beach and film a sandcastle scene, a bit of light relief for a program they are making for a couple with very ill children in High Bickington.
After discussing the details and refusing to do it at Woolacombe, they get enough publicity, we managed to land it for Westward Ho! As we organize nearly all of the events here in Westward Ho!, we have a brilliant working relationship with the council event licencing team, especially Peter Soper. A few phone calls later, with Peter's help, all permissions were granted from Torridge District Council. Our village Councillors Nick Laws and Claire Hodson also were there supporting all they could. As we are all the businesses working together in Westward Ho! we needed access permission from John and Julie Martin, that was instant too. We agreed to personally build the sandcastle that Julian would take credit for so everything was set quickly, easily, without any fuss at all and just shows what can be sorted quickly when people work together.
The date was set for Wednesday 31st July 2019, all we needed now was good weather! Even that came good too, we had perfect Sandcastle building conditions with sun in the morning then a bit overcast, the sand didn't dry out too quick...Perfect.
We met the production team at the beach just as the tide started to go out, we were referred to as the Sandcastle professionals...As good as this sounds, we are just spirited amateurs that would do our best for Westward Ho! Peter Sawyer took the lead, after years ago, winning the ND Hospice Sandcastle Competition several times (still no artist!). Once the tide had gone down enough, Matt Schofield jumped into the digger and produced a pile of sand in minutes. We were on.
After five hours of hard toil from Peter Sawyer, Andrew Cross, Pheobe Gibb and Beth Gibb the master piece took shape, time got a bit tight near the end but mission successful, just in time for the DIY SoS team to arrive. We still had some last minute things to complete, but it looked great.
Loved the way Nick straight away said "we need a moat, Julian just tickle one out please" then within 10 minutes our masterpiece was complete. The filming went well and the production team got all the footage they needed, Westward Ho! had provided once more.
The atmosphere on the beach was just wonderful, cameras, celebrates, diggers, giant sandcastle with many people getting photos with the DIY SoS team and talking to them. They were all lovely people and although still working, found some light relief at Westward Ho!
With the filming all done and checked, it was a wrap. The moat was filled back in and life in Westward Ho! could go back to normal. Back to normal? What is normal in Westward Ho!? I guess this is why we love the place so much, you never quite know what is going to happen next as the village is being found more and more by different people. We made it very easy for the DIY SoS team with co-operative working between businesses, Council, Councillors, producers and researchers.
A lot of time and effort went into creating this sandcastle, Westward Ho! has amazing sand for large sand castles. Want to build a big one? Don't forget we have our annual National Sandcastle Competition in aid of the North Devon Hospice in June 2020, come along and build one too.
Once the filming was complete Peter just couldn't resist adding one last final touch to the sandcastle....A Bob topping!
What trip to the seaside would be complete without Fish & Chips? That must of been their thoughts too! Lunch was a trip to our amazing Atlantic Bay Fish and Chip shop to be looked after by Chris and Kate. This is a brilliant way to end a superb day of sandcastle filming at the most awesome Westward Ho!
Thank you to the whole DIY SoS team for choosing Westward Ho!, the Council for making it easy for them, our Councillors for smoothing everything out, the local businesses for coffee, teas, food, access and support, Robert Braddick and Helen Cross for the photos plus our sandcastle construction crew. Well done Westward Ho!, you pulled it off brilliantly.
We expected 150-200 people and ended up with a village full! The spirits were high and it did begin to feel a lot like Christmas. What a great 2019 Christmas Light switch on but it showed we have to grow this event too as it's no longer a small, intimate community event.
WHAAM Variety Performance show for the Appledore RNLI has had a shake up, a bit of a make over and is ready to be rolled out...Are you going to be there?
Haunted History tour of Seafield House as part of the Day Of The Dead celebrations in Westward Ho! True ghost stories from Westward Ho! and spiritual tour of the house.
2019 Was the year that the North Devon Hospice National Sandcastle Competition was resurrected in it's new home, at Westward Ho! It was A LOT of fun and created a wonderful buzz in the village.
